Poetry for Children

Characteristics of Children's Poetry (based on our observations of the poems shared in class):

• humour-catches attention and interest
• rhyme scheme is common
• nonsense--doesn't always make sense or have any reason
• straightforward, easy to understand, easy to follow
• simple, colourful words
• often illustrated
• topics that kids can relate to
• rhythm--good for reading out loud
• narrative voice sounds more like child's than an adults
• beg to be read out loud
• fun to read out loud and/or hear
• imaginative; based on some kind of realism but fall outside the norm
• confidence builders--good for beginner readers
• telling a story but not in a traditional format
• sometimes they have a moral to them
• vocabulary is different; made up words; complex words; etc.

Click on the link below for some notes from our class on poetry for children.


Poets for Children

Jack Prelutsky

Dennis Lee

Shel Silverstein

J. Patrick Lewis


Sample Poems

Concrete Poetry: Click here for some sample concrete poems.

Narrative Poetry:

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service
Text of poem



Haiku: Wikipedia has a good overview